The principalities of the individual players develop over three epochs in the board game Principato von Eggert games . When is the best time for extensions, when are harvests particularly worthwhile and how much defense is necessary on your own city walls? In the end, you can only be successful if you have the timing under control at all times.
Principato is characterized by a clever mechanism around the action cards. From the constantly changing pool of action options, players have to secure the best ones in good time. But to perceive new opportunities in one’s own development also means at the same time having to part with previous ones. That makes Principato a game full of tactics and tricky decisions.
Author: Touko Tahkokallio
Illustrator: Dennis Lohausen
Content:
- 4 principalities
- 100 action cards
- 8 destination cards
- 8 starting player card
- 1 overview map
- 84 supply tokens
- 57 military tiles
- 45 culture tokens
- 90 wooden stones
- 60 military point tickets
Price: 21.99 | Players: 2-4 | Age: 8+ | Duration: 90
The three phases of the game
Activate an action card
One of two action cards is selected and the action is carried out. If you have an exchange symbol on the card, the action card you used is removed and you draw a new card from the display.
Exchange an action card
With this action you swap any card from the display without your own card having been activated beforehand.
Take a favor stone
You take a favor token from the supply and place it in your own principality. These stones are then to be handled like a joker.
The military ranking
- The food stones of the farms are placed on top of the militias
- The money stones from the banks are placed on the condottieri
- Favor stones or jokers are also scored
The catapults are worth one point each. If the Condottieri has a coin, you get one point, if it doesn’t, you get a minus point. Likewise, the Milliz with a food stone gets one point and one without a food stone gets a minus point.
Special rules from Principato
It is not a problem if you have more tiles than places in the principality. However, if you receive more stones in an action than you have tiles, then these stones are lost. You can always move stones to the militias and condottieri, but you do not come back with them. There are different victory points on the culture tiles. You can also do without actions if you don’t want to. The stones are returned to the supply that were placed on the militias and condottieri when the military scoring is over.
Explanatory video
Conclusion
This game has a straightforward set of rules and is exciting and full of strategy. It is particularly suitable for two players and is a lot of fun. With 16 different action cards you can build buildings, produce food and money, recruit soldiers and collect cultural goods. Of course, luck always plays an important role when drawing cards. The nice thing about teamwork is the big one interaction which takes place. You don’t always get what you plan because the other player can snatch it away from you. Only those who collect enough food, money and gun stones can feed their soldiers. It is also commendable that such a great game is offered so cheaply. This is suitable for every budget.
